 Sunday Friends, annual recipient of the Town Crier Holiday Fund, involves volunteers spending time with families at shelters in San Jose. |
This holiday season, local non-profit groups are struggling more than ever as donations are down in the aftermath of a string of natural disasters in 2005 - the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Pakistan.
That’s where the Town Crier Holiday Fund, now in its sixth year, comes in. Local philanthropists have provided $80,000 in challenge matching funds.
The donors will match every dollar donated up to $80,000, setting the fund’s target at $160,000.
Those providing matching challenge grants include Steve and Michele Kirsch Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Skoll Community Fund, Rambus Inc., Charles and Nan Geschke Foundation, William and Gay Krause Foundation, Los Altos resident Ed Dowd and first-time donor Everlasting Private Foundation.
The Town Crier Holiday Fund’s 2004 campaign was the most successful ever. With $60,000 in matching gifts, the Town Crier staff set a goal of $120,000 for the season. However, by last Jan. 5 the total reached $134,000, a 24 percent increase over the previous year.
The Fund in 2004 attracted more than 450 donors, 240 of which were first-time contributors; 80 donors have contributed for five consecutive years.
The value of each donation is enhanced by the Town Crier, which is absorbing all overhead and administrative costs. One hundred percent of each donation goes into the fund for disbursement to the organizations.
New to the 2005 fund is Downtown College Preparatory, a San Jose Unified School District charter school focused on preparing underachieving students for college success. Former Los Altos mayor Bob Grimm is chairman of the board and a major contributor to the school.
Other organizations supported by the Holiday Fund are:
• Sunday Friends. Involves volunteer teens and preteens spending time with kids and families at the children’s, family and homeless shelters in San Jose.
• East Palo Alto Kids Foundation. Offers supplies and teaching aids for teachers in EPA schools.
• Bayshore Christian Ministries. Provides after-school tutoring and projects for EPA kids. Andy, who launched the program 15 years ago, says that four kids from his first clubs years ago now own their own homes in the Bay Area.
• Hidden Villa Summer Camperships. Support summer camps for the disadvantaged that are run by the environmental education and wilderness preserve in Los Altos Hills.
• The Challenge Learning Center. Provides outdoor learning programs teaching young people how to solve challenges and learn problem-solving skills through strategy, cooperation and physical involvement.
• Truck of Love. Pete Fullerton is a fixture in the county, bringing food and clothes and food vouchers to the homeless.
• Community Homeless Alliance Ministry. Based on 4th Street in downtown San Jose, serves 40-50 homeless every night. Free dinner and a place to spend the night, but every morning everyone has to be out looking for work.
• Career Closet. Large agency in San Jose that provides clothes and training to help unemployed moms get work.
• CSA Dental Voucher Program. Serves families in the Community Services Agency’s area that have no health care.
• Mother Branch. Run by a woman who has been supporting the needy in her East Palo Alto community with food and clothing for 47 years.
• Help One Child. Recruits and trains foster parents to get kids out of the children’s shelter in San Jose and into caring homes. Also helps foster parents cope with children of drug-addicted parents.
• Community Health Awareness Council. Supports schools in our area with counseling services, particularly for poor children from abusive or substance-abusive homes.
The Community Foundation Silicon Valley is the fiscal agent for the Town Crier Holiday Fund. It provides the tax-deductible status for the fund. Each contribution to the Town Crier Holiday Fund will be acknowledged.
Checks should be made payable to Town Crier Holiday Fund and sent to 138 Main St., Los Altos 94022. Credit card contributions can be handled by phone. Call Leverne at 948-9000.
